Fall Gelb

And that is still questionable, unless there is deffinative help in the future for your soldiers.

Yes, if you can't defend your objective effectively without losing a mass majority of your troops and there's no help around the next corner it is best to withdraw.

Von Paulus' 6th Army was best to withdraw from Stalingrad in 1942. It wouldn't have been a retreat but a tactical withdrawal from an objective deemed, by Hitler, to be held.

Hitler would not have let him withdraw.

Which is what you get when you have a Corporal directing the battle plan.

A crazy deranged corporal as a matter of fact!

There were many mistakes made before the attempt into Stalingrad, all of which being Hitler's. The original plan was good, 6th Army would advance to the Volga, cutting off the Caucasus. Then 4th Panzer Army would advance into the Caucasus capturing the oil fields and encircling any Soviet Armies there.

The first problem was that the Soviets realising they lacked the skill or numbers to face the Wehrmacht in pitched battles just fell back. The German observation of the Allies was that they fought for land instead of over it. The Wehrmacht always aimed to crush the opposition army, not capture land or towns.
Hitler got excited because the 6th Army was advancing with little opposition. He assumed the Soviets lacked any armies that were capable of resistance. He diverted forces from the 6th Army and sent them to join the 4th Panzer Army which he sent to the Caucasus before the trap had been set.
The 6th Army now deprived of vital armour and fuel had to carry on with the original plan, which it in fact achieved. It reached the Volga, cutting off the Caucasus. Then, the critical blow came, Hitler ordered the 6th Army to take Stalingrad! That was never a target for the Wehrmacht didn't care for the cities or towns, they wanted the enemy army!
Then after the realisation that the 6th Army needed more troops, after throwing in it's reserves and not crushing the Soviet bridgehead on the east coast of the Volga, ordered German units on the 6ths' flank to join in, while Romanian, Slovakian and Italian units with no heavy anti-tank artillery took their place!

Then when the Soviets had encircled the 6th Army, they only thought they'd captured 30,000! The 6th Army could have smashed straight through with little effort! 250,000 men would have slaughtered the Soviet troops and just smashed out of the encirclement. But no! Moron Hitler doesn't have a clue and says that 4th Panzer Army is on it's way. In actual fact, the Soviet Armies had pushed further, all the way to Rostov which encircled elements of the 4th Panzer Army and Romanian 3rd Army in Caucasus as well as 6th Army in Stalingrad.

Had Hitler allowed the breakout, Stalingrad would have been the biggest disaster for the Soviets. Instead it was allowed to fester and Goering thought he could deliver 500 tons a day, when 6th Army already said it needed at least 800 tons. Even then, only 80 tons made it everyday. And, by then 7 Soviet Armies had encircled Stalingrad and then the Soviets made a mistake, by attacking Stalingrad instead of letting the German troops to rot!

Out of 100,000 troops captured in Stalingrad, only 6000 returned to Germany.

Wow, that was all off memory...quite a large rant.

The biggest mistake Hitler made was put himself in control of the military, if he had left it to his real Military Commanders things may have been different atleast for a little while longer then they did. Hitler was fixed on one big picture and would not see the the other things that had to be accomplished. He basically had tunnel vision, he could see the victorious end but did not see the things that had to be accomplished first.

Anyhow my grandfather was at Stalingrad, it is where he was wounded and captured. He fortunatly came home, or there would not have been me.

One lucky, lucky, guy! My mates granddad was in the Army Group South with the Hungarian Army and had similar good fortune.

That would have been a tragedy not to have you, Adler.



Yes, Hitler was not a military tactician. I can safely say Russia would have been captured in 1942 had he left it to the German General Staff.

I don't know about the rest but N.Africa wasn't taken because the Royal Navy was depriving Rommel of supplies. Contrary to belief that it was ALL Hitler's fault. Out of every 4 supply ships going to Rommel, only 1 got through.
Plus Rommel made the fatal error of saying he could take Eygpt with Malta intact. The Luftwaffe had to support him, by the time they diverted to Malta it was too late.

plan_D said:

That would have been a tragedy not to have you, Adler.

Click to expand...

I am sure there are atleast one person here at this forum that would have been a great thing because then I would not have around.....

As for the Hitler not a tactician you are correct. He pretty much threw away all of Germany's victories and lost the war for them.

As for Rommel his big mistake was not taking Tobruk. Had Tobruk fallen, the British would not have recieved supplies and he could pushed them out of Egypt. As you said Rommel was not getting supplies but the British were through Tobruk. Had Rommel taken Tobruk and the Germans could have taken all the Islands in the Med, then they could have controled the supplies flowing into N. Afrika. Then things may have been different but only if the Luftwaffe and U-Boots could have protected the supply ships. The one thing that N. Afrika did accomplish for the Germans was bogging down the British and keeping them from putting up more of a defense for Greece.

The Afrika Korps were never sent to Africa to capture it. They were only sent there to hold as many British troops up as possible. In that, they were successful.
Rommel did try and take Tobruk in 1941 and he did take Tobruk in 1942. The reason he failed in 1941 was because it was a heavily defended fortress, the Australian garrison were very brave and stubborn men. By 1942 it had been neglected after the massive push by the British toward Tripoli.

North Africa was a massive blunder for the British because it could have been ended in 1940. The British were only a few miles from Tripoli but Churchill diverted forces and fuel to Greece. Had Tripoli been taken, the Afrika Korps would have never entered North Africa and hundreds of thousands of Italians would have been captured. Then vital resources could have been sent to Greece with no worries in North Africa.

It actually happened again 1942, the British came close to capturing Tripoli but forces were diverted to Malaya and Singapore. Twice Britain came close but couldn't sort out their priorities.

Rommel did very well in N. Afrika, he may have lost but he did very well for what he had.

There is no denying that but Britain had a chance to end the North African campaign before Rommel was even there. Then they had another chance to end it while he was there in 1942.

Due to Britain's mixed up priorities, it lasted until 1943.

Yes I agree. I was just watching the World At War series on DVD and it amazes me how many times they tried to fix the problem by changing commanders but what they really just did was put the problem on the back burner.

Do you have The World At War on DVD too?

You are talking about the 6 DVD series, if yes, then yes I do. To me it is the best set I have seen.

Mine is 11 DVDs. 35 + hours!

It's awesome.

Where'd you steal it from?

If the courts prove anything, they'll tell you.

11 DVD's. I have the whole set on 6 DVD's. They are double sided though which would make it 12 technically.